The IEEE 1394 standard is a serial interface that couples nodes such as a personal computer and a digital camera that process a large amount of voice data and image data.
In an IEEE 1394-standard network, a single node manages the node ID of each node in the network and serves as a bus master that controls changes in the node IDs (refer to, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2000-174753 and 2006-087118). In such a network, when a node serving as the bus master leaves the network or another node takes over its place, a bus resets. This reassigns a node ID to each node in the network.
In the IEEE 1394 standard, a bus reset may occur in a network due to unexpected external noise. After the bus reset, a node ID is reassigned to each node in the network. The reassigned node ID may differ from the node ID used prior to the bus reset. Thus, before communication starts, each node has to find all of its communication peer nodes (other nodes) in the network, specify the node IDs of the communication peer nodes, generate a request for collecting device information (e.g., communication speed) of the communication peed nodes, and negotiate with the communication peed nodes. Such series of processes impose a restriction to communication and delays the restarting of communication after the bus reset.